We Are Fed

I want to be fed. I want satisfaction. We all want the satisfaction of feeling full — fully happy, fully successful, and fully fed. But these are human desires, human needs, and human wants. There is only one thing that will truly satisfy us, truly fill us, and truly feed us, and that is to be ONE with God—to be spiritually full and to be spiritually fed.

The nature of sin experienced by Adam and Eve is still present in all humans as we continue to be tempted to search for worldly happiness, worldly success, and worldly satisfaction. But in both the New and Old Testament readings this weekend (Deuteronomy 8 & John 6), in the Lord’s Prayer, and in many other places in the Bible, we are reminded and promised by God that He is always here for us and He will always provide us what we need to live. Whether it is the manna of the Old Testament or Christ’s Body and Blood of the New he gives us the food to fill us spiritually and physically.

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6:51-58).

”How good it was, for the Church and for themselves, that they did stay! Even though the Last Supper was still shrouded in mystery, they got the idea of how He would give them His own Body and Blood at the Last Supper, but it took the power and light of Pentecost for their firm understanding.” (Usccb.org meditation June 26, 2011)

Do we fail to appreciate and understand that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist? Have we lost true fulfillment because we are searching for something more, by accepting something actually less, something more pleasing, more palpable than His true presence in the Eucharist.

Jesus let many listeners leave him who did not understand. Had Jesus said this metaphorically or meant the Eucharist to be a symbol, He then would have called them back. But because he meant this was His true flesh and blood he let them go. What is being lost by those who don’t understand? What are we losing because we are choosing to be fed by the world instead of God?

We too have the free choice to believe and to receive His body and blood in the Eucharist, fully following Him and being fed, or to turn away from the completeness of the Eucharist, leaving ourselves empty or wanting, searching for more.

God promises us fulfillment. Are we trying to understand the truth so that we can be fully fed? Not by this world, but to be fed by God’s true presence renewed each time we receive the Eucharist — to be truly FED, with the TRUE presence.

Be fed in Christ, by Christ, through Christ.

Heavenly Father: May the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved. Thank You for the sacrifice given to us in His Body and Blood at each Eucharistic sacrifice. Help me to allow myself to be fed and to take the time to be fed by You and not the world. Amen.

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